Break From Reality
by ChocoBubbleAJ
Summary: (Alternative Title: "Adrian In Mushroom Land" Rating subject to change) He just wanted an escape; he just wanted to get away from his life for one afternoon. Well, after making a strange discovery on what was to be a relaxing mountain hike, Adrian may have gotten more than he had hoped for. In fact, his life may never be the same.
1. Chapter 1: Finding Fungus

**Chapter 1: Finding Fungus**

It was a cloudy late-summer's day and surprisingly cold despite the high humidity in the air bringing low rolling clouds over the mountains. The cool temperatures were the only reason Adrian had decided to hike the Appalachian trail this particular afternoon, other than the promise of maybe getting some breathtaking footage from the small drone strapped to his backpack.

Gravel crunching underfoot and the chirping of finches were all he could hear over the sound of his labored panting on one of the steeper expanses of the path. His puffy brunette mohawk was hanging damp in his face; his glasses smearing with grease each time his hair happened to brush over them. His chest compressor and short sleeved plain button-down were uncomfortably moist from sweat and would chill from the breeze in the least refreshing sort of way. Even his comfy tan cargo shorts felt like needles grazing his overworked thighs with each step pulsing him forward.

"Aahhh-" Adrian groaned up at the white sky, stopping to catch a breath and slouching pathetically under the weight of his heavy pack. "Why the hell am I doing this? Hahh… I can't do physical activities with _my_ lungs."

He would have normally followed up that statement with something along the lines of using somebody else's lungs instead, as he is prone to making such (corny) jokes, but the exhaustion was getting to be too much. Scanning the area through his rectangle lenses, he spotted a flat-topped rock cluster a few meters further up the path nestled between twin birch trees; an ideal spot to sit for a moment and replenish his water and nutrient starved muscles. Trudging those last agonizing steps, he gratefully plopped down on the relatively clean surface of the medium sized boulder, slowly managing to snake his arms out from his backpack straps and carefully setting the mass pouch-side up on the taller rock so the drone lay safely on top.

Kicking his low-cut brown boots up on the shortest of the stones, he fished through his bag for a large water bottle and a near to bursting quart-size storage bag full of trail mix, taking the next few minutes noshing and admiring the varied shades of green in the deciduous canopy above him. Even after resealing his still plentiful dried snacks and packing up, he stayed for a while, his back against the silvery white trunk of one tree and facing the other. It was reminiscent of a hammock, and the rustling of wind in the leaves was a mind-numbing sort of white noise that had him dozing before he even knew what hit him.

About a half hour later, the sound of a rapid tapping noise in the distance roused Adrian from his rest with a start. He sat up straight, nearly knocking his precious backpack tumbling down the sheer hillside. He was quick to discover that the tapping was merely a woodpecker in another tree nearby looking for its own snack. He sighed in relief, checking the time and seeing that he hadn't been out long enough to worry about it getting dark before he could get his footage and get back down the mountain.

Suited up and well enough refreshed, Adrian finally forced his way to the top of the incline he'd been struggling with most since the beginning of his hike and reached level ground where the trees on the slope had all but fell in some old mudslide and left the area with a gorgeous overlook on the rest of the purple mountain-scape and forest. If not for the clouds, one might even have gotten to see distant settlements at the base of the beautiful granite cliffs.

All but awed to tears, he set down his travel bag again and had a long session of recording with his drone, capturing the scenery to look back on the next time he wanted an escape from city life (without all the sweating and bug bites). Eventually, the drone was approaching low battery life and he retrieved it, heading back down from the rock face. Descending the harshly inclining trail was a breeze and he had to resist the urge to run with his arms out like wings, lest he succumb to fatigue again or crash face first into a tree.

Passing by the spot where he'd come to rest at the rocks and birches, his eye caught something unusual that hadn't been there before; on the boulder he'd used as a table sat a mushroom, looking as if it had been growing there for weeks. It was a few inches tall, had a domed red cap with splotches of white spores, and the stalk was a pale flesh tone rather than off-white or brown.

Adrian halted completely in his tracks, observed the fungus for a moment, then approached. He had seen this type of mushroom before, but never in person, and he was sure they were not native to the area. Having a sibling who actually both grew mushrooms as a hobby and was a general nerd in the realms of games and the internet, the name of this one was easily rolling off the tip of his tongue.

"Amanita muscaria…" He reached out, gently rubbing a finger over the cap, avoiding most of the white powder, and he smiled. "These are like the mushrooms from Mario. They don't usually grow _here_ or on rocks, though. How weird..."

He continued to pet the shroom and muse to himself for a bit before decidedly plucking the growth to take as a souvenir. He wouldn't eat it, knowing the psychoactive compounds it contained, but it would be cool to preserve and show off to his fungus-freak of a sister.

Turning to get back on the trail, eyes still on his new mushy travel companion, he didn't see the newest instance of the mysterious red-capped fungus that sprouted a foot tall directly behind him and tripped, shouting as he fell, rolled, and tumbled painfully between trees, over rocks, and through abrasively scratchy underbrush down the scarp off the wrong side of his path. After a long ten to fifteen seconds of playing pine tree plinko where he was the disk, he came to rest on his side in a dip on the cliff face.

Having laid still, hissing in pain for a good five minutes, Adrian started trying to give himself an evaluation on his well-being. First he made sure his hands were fully responsive; check. Next, wiggling toes; good. No broken bones, he still knew his own name and where he was (generally speaking), and the worst of his injuries he presumed were going to be just scrapes and ugly bruises. Alright, so no permanent damage seemed to be done.

He sat up and started inspecting his gear; unfortunately for him, his drone was missing two of the four propellers and had a multitude of scratches and chips. He doubted the camera would ever work again.

"Damn, it's ruined! I mean, I could probably still get my footage off of it... Better than leaving it here. Can't dwell too long on this right now though." He wanted to take the time to be sad about breaking the one really awesome gift his mom had given him on his 21st birthday, but in this situation, he couldn't spare the sentiment. He settled for keeping the machine strapped as it was.

He checked his other possessions; glasses were intact, phone still worked (but had no reception, _of course_ ), keys were still on the chain, flashlight was in one piece, switchblade worked. _He still had the damn mushroom that got him into this mess._ His trail mix was a little more crushed up but both that and his water were consumable at the very least. His first aid kit and spare emergency clothes were disorganized but nothing was missing. With that in mind, he decided to patch himself up and change out of his sweaty clothes while he could. If it got dark before he found his way back to a camp or trail, those wet and bloody clothes could mean trouble for plenty of reasons he didn't want to think about.

Now dressed in a bright orange, long sleeve shirt that would make him easily visible if other hikers happened by, and in durable blue jeans that would protect his already scuffed up legs from the unrestricted flora and fauna of the off-path wilderness, Adrian felt less exposed but no less endangered by his surroundings, headed in the direction that (he hoped) would lead him back to the trail.

After no less than thirty seconds into his venture, Adrian walked straight into a strange looking clearing in the trees. There was an oblong patch of ground that was just devoid of any plants or shrubbery taller than a dandelion, completely walled in by a mish mash of different tree species, all with inter-tangled roots and what's branches left the center of this space open to the sky above just enough to illuminate what was truly to be beheld in the middle of the field.

"You've got to be kidding me." Adrian walked straight up to the edge of it, partly fuming, but undeniably amazed. "These freaking mushrooms? _More_ of them?"

At his feet was one side of a large rim of Amanita muscaria caps, at least a dozen laid out in a perfect circle directly underneath the gap in the forest canopy, all different shapes and girths but none shorter than ankle height.

"This is unbelievable. I've never seen a fairy circle like this. Never…" He tightly gripped his backpack straps as he whispered, losing himself in the reverie of such a mystifying sight. So entranced by the strange over-sized shrooms was he, he didn't even realize that he was stepping over them into the middle of the ring. The next thing he knew…

It was pure darkness, and he was falling.


	2. Chapter 2: Kingdom Coming

**Chapter 2: Kingdom Coming**

He was screaming the loudest he ever had in his life. He couldn't see anything, and thanks to his own fearful shrieks, he heard nothing either. All he could do was feel, and all he could feel was downward motion that formed a pit in his stomach and made his life flash before his eyes. Even being non-religious, Adrian felt the strong urge to pray for an end to this hellish hike that didn't result in his untimely demise.

A long moment passed before Adrian realized that he was no longer plunging straight down; now he was sliding on a near friction-less curved surface that looped and turned in ways he couldn't fathom. As far as he could tell, he was going down the darkest, twistiest tube slide in existence, and he wasn't far off. If it weren't for his confusion and being completely petrified as to where he was going to end up, he might have thrown his hands in the air and enjoyed the ride like he was 8 years old again.

That would have been a mistake.

Thanks to his gut instinct and the adrenaline coursing through his brain, he pressed his palms down hard on either side of his hips, the sweat rubbing off quickly to the point that his skin was squeaking against the smooth material, slowing him gradually. In the seconds that followed, time crawled in shuttering frames. There was a light at the end of the tunnel, it got closer. Adrian could see nothing but clouds beyond the exit, he frantically turned himself over onto his hands and knees, the toes of his high traction boots now aiding his braking ability. There was suddenly nothing under his feet and-

He opened his eyes, seeing both of his now terribly chafed hands gripping the edge of a _floating green warp pipe._ But wait, his hands looked oddly a lot larger than normal-

No time to focus on either of these revelations, Adrian decided, as his gaze shifted down to see two awfully cartoony legs dangling beneath him, and a 50-story drop into some kind of equally cartoony woodland. He gasped and started scrambling to climb back into the horizontal pipe to at least have a spot to sit and freak out in some manner of safety rather than fall and die.

He crunched and kicked and engaged muscles that he hadn't even known existed clamoring to get back up, but his hands were sweating again and he'd taken such a beating falling off that cliff-side, he could only cry out in fright as his grasp became weaker and weaker. In that moment, over the whistling of wind in his ears and his own yelps, Adrian swore he could hear a huge pair of wings flapping and even someone humming.

One hand fell loose from the ledge, unable to hold any longer, letting Adrian sway precariously, his body turning this way and that; this ended up being beneficial, as he got to look farther toward what had been behind him and spotted something he couldn't quite believe, but in his desperation, he didn't dare to question. To his rear and 20 feet below him, a giant flying turtle with a blue shell and an aviator's cap, was coasting right by.

"Puh- **PARAKARRY?! H-HELP!"** Adrian thought himself crazy to think a side character from an old game from his childhood was really what he was seeing in the flesh right now, and was his only hope for survival, but he kept shouting as he was now four fingers from plummeting into a puddle of himself on the ground.

Thankfully, the parakoopa reacted and looked up, shock flashing across his face before he hastily dropped his mail satchel and ascended, stubby arms extended as far as they could reach.

Adrian almost let himself feel relieved, until he felt sunlight shining on him through the pipe; he wasn't able to see the sun as it was originally eclipsed by the gargantuan tube, but said tube was now steadily vanishing into thin air. His panic set back in full-force.

 _ **Slip.**_

He forced his eyes shut. He didn't want to see his legs meet the ground before they were driven through his brain. But they never were. His heart was beating out his ears right now but a timid, frantic voice was speaking to him. He drew a breath and his hearing came through again.

"Hey! Are you alright?.. Hello?"

Hardly able to inhale at regular intervals, Adrian popped his eyes back open and saw his wrists being gripped securely by the winged mail-koopa, who was clearly almost as frazzled as he was himself. Fortunately now they were together descending at a safe, moderate pace toward the forest and the most Adrian could manage was a shuddery grunt, expending the rest of his energy trying to not pass out.

Upon a much gentler impact with the grassy earth than previously anticipated, Adrian dropped his backpack and let himself collapse onto his back once Parakarry released his forearms. His glazed eyes dilated up at the emerald dot in the sky beyond the yellow turtle-like face hovering worriedly over him. _Was he imagining that the pipe reappeared?_

"Um… Forgive my saying so, but you don't look so well." Parakarry waved a hand in front of Adrian's face.

A long, silent pause later, Adrian's mind finally realigned with his physical being and he wheezed out a cough, hopping up and blinking in confusion at the reptilian creature staring back at him. He then trained his eyes down over himself, wiggling his cute plump fingers before touching his own face, confirming his suspicions. _Over-sized head, elastic chubby cheeks, big round ears and eyes, completely disproportionate body…_

"I'm like a Mario character" Adrian murmured in amazement. Laughing in a crazed kind of way, once more on the verge of hysteria, he locked eyes again with Parakarry.

"...Did you say Mario?" Parakarry tilts his head, fluttering a little closer. "Say, is that how you know my name? You're a friend of Mario's, too? And gee, how'd you end up all the way in the sky? That pipe you were hanging out of tends to disappear whenever I get near it, so I'm surprised you could even touch it!"

Adrian barely caught any of what the koopa said, still reeling at his discovery of somehow existing in a video game world, but he heard 'Friend of Mario' and was reminded that Parakarry knows where Mario lives, being a mail carrier that canonically delivers letters to his doorstep at least sometimes.

"Huh? Oh, yeah! I know you because of Mario, sure!" He straightened up and smiled in what he hoped was a non-creepy manner, scratching the side of his neck. "And, uh… That pipe…" His eyes flickered back up from whence they came, stumped about the whole situation. "I was just… seeing where that pipe led from the other side, and… Well, you know. By the way, could you direct me to Mario's house? I kind of don't know my way around these parts, heh."

Adrian didn't like to lie, not even to a character he hardly knew or ever even thought of, but straight up saying that he fell into this world after finding a ring of mushrooms in a forest on Earth would be harder and more time-consuming to explain, and time could be of the essence as far as he knew. Besides, admitting to know things about this world and then claiming to not be from it would sound suspicious, and he didn't want to get into trouble.

At any rate, Parakarry bought it and they both took up their bags (Parakarry predictably having lost about half the contents of his when he dropped it but there was no way Adrian was going to the trouble of retrieving any letters) and they went on their way. At least some things about this world were as a fan could expect them to be.


	3. Chapter 3: Meet the Mario

**Chapter 3: Meet the Mario**

The walk from the site beneath the pipe was lengthy and a tad awkward, but the ground was flat, so that was a nice change of pace. Adrian followed alongside Parakarry, who was silent for the most part but would ask the occasional question. What's your name? Where are you from? Is your hair natural? What is all in that backpack? Each response was careful and to the point, trying to avoid further curiosity.

"Adrian." "Out of town." "Yes." "Personal stuff."

Matters weren't made easier by the fact that Adrian himself was full of wonder and a thousand inquiries, which he told himself he couldn't ask because of how obvious it would be that he both knows too much and nothing at all about how this world functions. If he got the chance though, he would ask them to Mario personally.

 _'Gosh… Getting to meet Mario in person…'_ He scoffed inwardly at this thought. _'Man, this is like a fever dream. Meeting the hero of this world's universe, and he used to be just a plumber. I wonder if-'_

"We're here!"

Adrian snapped to attention, eyes roving his surroundings quickly. They were standing in a still fairly wooded area, but it opened up to a cobbled path leading through a broad eggshell colored gate. With dirty glasses, he couldn't read the sign over the archway at this distance, but something was familiar about the architecture. He started toward the path, only to have Parakarry tap his shoulder.

"Oh, no, we're not going through town! You want the direct route, don't you?"

Turning 170 degrees to his left, Adrian spotted what the parakoopa had implied was his real destination. He hadn't seen the pipe embedded face up in the dirt as it blended in well with the adjacent shrubbery. _Great, another warp pipe. As if his first experience with one wasn't traumatizing in any way._

"Uh… Please tell me the other end of this thing is at least on the ground?" He shuddered, a little pale, but cautiously stepped forward. It would be less stressful to go through town, he figured, but he chided himself for trying to disregard how important it was to not waste time (and not attract more attention than necessary).

"Of course it is! Don't worry, the farthest you'd fall from this one is maybe half a meter at most! Just keep your feet beneath you and you'll be fine." Parakarry gave him an encouraging smile and a thumbs up. "Anyways, it was nice to meet you, Adrian! Stay safe and give Mario my best. Farewell!"

Adrian was still shaking as he bid the mail-parakoopa goodbye, assuming he was off to find his lost parcels or get to a post office. Now alone, he stared down the lightless chute of green and inhaled deeply. With a few false starts, he eventually psyched himself up enough to climb over the rim of the pipe and slowly ease his legs down until he couldn't even see his feet in the inky black depths, then finally decided _'Screw it,'_ and threw himself in the pit, biting back a scream.

The ride this time around was much quicker, and Adrian had heeded Parakarry's advice about keeping his feet under him, but somehow he found himself launching feet first out the other end, a couple feet into the air and then plonking down on his rear onto more grassy earth. His eyes were closed the whole time out of reflex. When he did crack them open, a wave of recognition and nostalgia washed over him, as well as excitement.

There stood the Mario house, complete with the brown letters that spelled it out on a sign affixed over the front entrance, the yellow diagonally clad walls, green front door, red terracotta plated roof and simple wood porch. There was a small stack of thin, straight jade pipes in the side yard, a fence around the property, and a cute little house-shaped mailbox- white with a blue roof- by the front walkway. Adrian had to admit, as much as he adored this design, he was confused why the simple cottage from the Paper Mario franchise would be the one that Mario really lived in, but he didn't have time to ponder.

Dusted off and gladly unhurt, he treaded lightly up the stairs onto the deck, gazing wide-eyed at that old lime-rind shaded door. There was a rather new looking buzzer plate bolted into the doorframe, what must have been installed recently. Adrian reached one twitching finger to the button and pressed it quickly before he lost his nerve. Resounding from inside the house, the bell rang out an upbeat eight tone melody that, if he recalled correctly, was the short jingle from Mario 64 that played when you collected a power star... _Wait, that tune also played when you got a power moon in Odyssey, how had he never noticed that until now? No time._

Stalk-still, ears keened to hear movement coming closer. The muffled sound of heavy boots on hardwood steadily increased in volume. Adrian was trying not to tremble, peering up a little higher than his line of sight, expecting to see someone of greater stature on the opposite side of the threshold- _'Oh yeah, Luigi also lives here, right? Did I really forget about him?'_ Lost in thought for the umpteenth time, he barely noticed the door swing inwards until the top of a red hat entered his vision.

A beat of silence passed with Adrian looking down into two ocean blue eyes, unable to breathe, and Mario blinking back at him, an overly expressive face conveying surprise and interest. It seemed like he was going to ask something but immediately rescinded the idea.

"Damn, you're as tall as me" was the first (unintelligent) thing that found its way out of Adrian's stupid and incredibly dry mouth, followed by "That's a surprise."

At the root of things, he wasn't wrong; Mario appeared to be his height, give or take an inch that could factor from the thickness of his boots' soles or where his hat ended and his head began. The ex-plumber also had stockier arms and legs and his midsection was rounder, but the only real pudge on him was just in his cheeks- or perhaps his nose. _There was a temptation to grab that schnoz and give it a honk like a bicycle horn._ Adrian had to shake his head to rid himself of that compulsion.

"Wha… What did-a you just say?" Mario was very clearly taken aback by the choice of words put out by this stranger on his doorstep. A human stranger at that, of which there were few in this world and he was sure he knew them all.

Adrian immediately fumbled and blundered to salvage his foolish first impression. "Oh, no, I wasn't calling you short, I just- I didn't think you'd be as tall as me- er, I mean, that I would be as tall as you! I'm sorry…" He pulled a bang of his hair down over his face, just wishing he could disappear. _The opportunity of a lifetime and_ THAT _was his introduction._

"Nononono," Mario took one step, shaking his head and swiping his hands through the air, one over the other, "You said… 'Damn'."

 _'Aw, crap, I did, didn't I?'_ Adrian covered his mouth with both hands and reeled back to the point of almost falling from the top step of the porch.

"I'm sorry! I didn't mean to- I don't wanna offend you, I…" He stared hard down at his own dusty boots, pulling his backpack tight against him like a protective shell, trying to muster up a method of starting over. Before he could though, he heard a warm, cheerful laugh. He stole a glance up to see Mario chuckling and leaning on the doorframe.

"Oh-ho… You're not-a from here, hm? Eh, some other planet, maybe?" He straightened up and adjusted his cap imperceptibly. "For a second, I thought you were from Earth, but the pipe there is long gone, so 'damn' probably means-a something else to you."

Just the mention of Earth and a pipe put new wind in Adrian's sails and he hopped up from his hunched form, kind of even invading Mario's personal space bubble unintentionally.

"I _am_ from Earth! That's why I came to you! I fell out of a pipe in the sky, and I figured you could help-" A white gloved palm gently pressed him back by the forehead as Mario spouted a stream of 'whoa's to calm his jets.

Pulling his glove away, the plumber's face was stern and his hands balled into fists on his hips were added assurance that he was in 'no-nonsense' mode.

"You don't-a just _claim_ to be from Earth to _Mario_. Just who do you think-a you are?"

Feeling small (despite literally being no smaller than the man reprimanding him), Adrian no longer felt sure that coming to the hero of the Mushroom Kingdom would be to his benefit… Unless…

Adrian puffed out his chest and carried himself in the manner he'd seen this very character before him stand prior to usually assuming a fighting pose, even mimicking his fiery gaze. The intended effect wasn't to make Mario back down, as it never would, but Adrian was instilled with a confidence that came from channeling his fighting spirit.

"My name is Adrian. I am from Earth, and I have proof."


	4. Chapter 4: True Terrestrial

**Chapter 4: True Terrestrial**

Glaring irises of mocha clashed with two of indigo in a bout of indignance. Adrian didn't want trouble, he _needed_ help, but he wouldn't get it until the mustachioed man his opposite believed he wasn't lying about his origins. The first thing he did was whip his cell phone out and unlock it, being watched with skepticism and a hint of sassy condescension all the while.

Immediately, he opened his photo gallery and, to his relief, all his photos hadn't changed to look like part of a game world the way he had. With no less than a swipe and a poke, he victoriously held the device out to display the best piece of evidence he had to assure Mario that he was telling the truth: a picture of the one and only Grand Central Terminal. _Being a New Yorker, Mario couldn't possibly refute that it was real. Good thing he'd kept that old pic from his family's visit to Manhattan._

Mario seemed to stare through the phone blankly at first, then his eyebrows raised and his posture shifted, hands falling to his sides and spine curved to draw his head backward like somebody had just pointed a gun at his forehead. He certainly seemed to be in awe.

" _Mama Mia_... Is that real?" His glove tentatively reached up, as if he was going to try passing his hand into the screen, but he never touched it, drawing away and eyeing Adrian uncertainly. "Do you have more? One-a still picture is just a start..."

Adrian nodded and showed him more photos in his camera roll: First a couple more of New York, which fascinated Mario with how modern the streets and people had become, and Adrian figured that the Italian might have somehow expected his home world to stay the same despite all the parallel advancements in this universe. _Something to consider later._ Next, they glanced over pictures Adrian had taken of his family, a video of his friends, and a photo of himself. At last, Mario seemed convinced.

Still in some state of shock, the red-capped man ushered his earthly acquaintance into the house, muttering in what was too soft and full of extra syllables to be understood as english. He bid Adrian to sit at the round table in the center of the room, gesturing for him to stay put and rushing off through a doorway ahead of him.

Adrian couldn't help but feel like he was dreaming while he took in the whole of the home's interior. It didn't look much like he'd seen in Paper Mario- obviously not with the very stylized textures from that game, being transitioned to semi-realistic 3D- but even the set-up was different. Upon entrance to the cabin, there was a kitchen space lining the right-hand wall with a long green laminate top counter, a deep basin steel sink, and a tall old-fashioned white refrigerator (where the fridge unit is on the bottom and the freezer is on top,) both the handles looking to be silver-plated. In the place of where a wood burning stove was originally crammed in the rear corner now stood a modern oven with a two burner cooktop. Cabinets and a pot rack hung along the whole length of the wall.

On the opposite side of the room was a living area with two cushy armchairs, one red and one green, a short cabinet upon which an older model flat screen TV sat, a mustard colored circle rug lay clean on the floor, and a large bookshelf housing novels, knickknacks, framed pictures, devices that Adrian couldn't recognize or distinguish at all, what looked like some movie or CD cases, and a miscellaneous houseplant or two. At the far wall of the house's front room was the door to the rear addition. It was, as Adrian knew, meant to be the brothers' room, now with an actual door sectioning it off rather than an open frame. Off to the left though was a different door that led who knows where, most likely a bathroom.

' _Man, if I had a cabin, I'd set it up just like this. Wild.'_ Adrian gleefully traced his fingertips over the edge of the wood table he sat at, momentarily letting himself forget why he was here and just admiring the basic but homey furnishings that spoke so much about the brothers' personalities. _The brothers…_

He could hear them. Mario was jabbering behind that door to their room in clear fluent Italian and whenever he took a short pause, a similar but deeper and slightly more nasally tone of voice would respond quietly. There was no way that could be anyone but Luigi. _Adrian was going to get to meet Luigi, too._ The eager, fluttery, nervous feeling he'd experienced when he first saw Mario kicked him in the stomach once more.

Adrian hated to say that he favored either brother over the other, but he related to Luigi more and that had undeniable significance now. Luigi was, as far as Adrian knew, quirky and introverted and made his share of foul-ups, but he was also heart-strong and had arguably fiercer determination to be a hero than his brother, who was his sole inspiration. Adrian couldn't help but hope that his beliefs about the 'green brother' were true and that he could befriend such a gentle soul.

Too soon for him to quell his butterflies, Adrian saw the door swing open and, unconsciously, put on his 'eyes-so-wide-it-is-unsettling' face with a tiny smile; his default expression when he's internally screeching with overpowering joy and straining to contain it.

Mario was first to step out into the open and he placed himself off to the side while his taller, leaner, (greener), and moderately frightened sibling dawdled in after him, instantly locking up at the sight of an odd looking stranger's large dilated pupils pointed intently in his direction, accompanied with a growing manic grin. He would have very likely backpedaled into the bedroom had Mario not impatiently taken his wrist and dragged his stony form up to the table.

"This is-a my brother, Luigi." Mario stated, releasing his petrified green counterpart as he took a seat across from their guest. "Luigi, say hello."

Luigi, to Mario's apparent oblivion, was shaking like a leaf, still entranced by the soul-invading stare pouring over his face. He gulped and forced himself to blink, clenching his jaw so his teeth wouldn't chatter as he mustered a nervous smile and raised a hand to wave very briefly. This action was to the stranger's delight, it seemed, as they rose from their chair and were almost instantly at his side, taking his hand firmly and wagging it up and down. Luigi momentarily choked on his breath in surprise.

"Pleasure to meet you! I'm Adrian!" Adrian let go of Luigi's thoroughly flapped arm, taking a large stride backward, expression finally softening into one less horrendously creepy and more sympathetic. "Sorry for intruding… and possibly freaking you out. I kind of have that effect on people."

Adrian returned to his seat and resumed watching the two brothers, now with a calmer air about him. This change in demeanor (and the acknowledgement that this person hadn't purposely intended to scare him) helped Luigi get over his initial terror and he too sat down, right next to Mario.

"Alrighty," Mario leaned forward, elbows on the table and hands steepled just under his nose, "so you came from Earth. How did you get here? Something about a pipe in-a the sky?"

For the next few minutes, Adrian began to recount his journey from the beginning. He became very animated when describing his hike down the mountain, taking time to detail the moment he believed to be the pivotal point where his whole day took a turn. _Finding that mushroom._ He even took the shroom out of his pocket to show off, only just noticing that the fungus had become what looked like a typical Mushroom Kingdom mushroom. ' _Cool.'_ After that observation, he continued.

"...Then I went to turn around, but another of these things popped up, like, directly under my foot and I tripped right off the freaking ledge! I must have been falling for a good ten seconds and I got banged up, my stuff got banged up-" He plopped his backpack on the table, displaying just how battered it and the drone had gotten in the incident.

"Anyway, once I stopped rolling, I got up and tried to find the trail, but I ended up wandering into a whole ring of these mushrooms. Next thing I knew, I was dangling out of a pipe someplace… South-ish of here? Above a forest… Oh!" Adrian leapt up and pointed at Mario, recollecting that Parakarry asked him to say hi (and forgetting several small details). "Parakarry saved me! He told me to give you his best, by the way- he's the one who led me to your house, so that's how I'm here! Heh…"

Mario and Luigi blinked at the visitor in unison, then exchanged glances. With as little as a couple minor facial tics and minute hand gestures, they seemed to be silently communicating something, much to Adrian's intrigue. _Did they know sign language or are they just_ THAT _good at charades?_

Eventually the brothers both nodded and turned back to their awestruck secret super-fan. Mario was, of course, the one to speak up, while Luigi got up and headed for the front door.

"Luigi and I think-a you should see Professor E. Gadd. You go with Luigi and I will be paying a visit to the princess of-a the kingdom. She will have to know about this pipe: it could be dangerous, hm?" Mario smiled politely, but there was a tense-ness to it. Adrian watched him rise with a stirring sense that getting home now might just be more of a hassle than he'd first thought.


	5. Chapter 5: Boo Blight

**Chapter 5: Boo Blight**

Walking down the front steps as Mario closed the door behind the three of them, Adrian felt unnerved but didn't allow himself to think on it for the moment. He merely clenched his fists around the straps of his backpack and followed closely behind Luigi, who stopped at the bottom of the stairs and watched Mario march onward to the warp pipe at the side of the walkway. Luigi waved his brother off with a 'bye' and pivoted to meander into the side yard toward the stack of seemingly useless smaller pipes.

Adrian blinked, first looking to see Mario disappear down the pipe to town, then to Luigi stopped in front of the narrower green tubes, scratching his head. _What was he doing? They were supposed to go see the professor, right?_

Shaking his head in confusion, Adrian trod over to where the other stood. "Uh, aren't we supposed to go, too?"

Luigi turned to him, eyes wide like he forgot Adrian was even there. "Oh. We're going a different way. I just, uh…" He side-eyed the pipes, looking to be in deep thought. "I'm-a trying to remember- Oh, yeah!" He faced the hollow cylinders and pointed to each one, saying a letter aloud apiece. "A, B, C, D, E for E. Gadd!"

Plunging his arm elbow deep into the pipe he labeled 'E', Luigi activated the hidden switch inside that caused a full-sized pipe to rumble up out of the ground a few feet away. Adrian's jaw dropped open and he gawped at Luigi who chuckled and shyly rubbed his neck.

"I always forget if it's E or G that opens the right pipe! Anyway, it won't stay up for long. Let's-a go!"

Adrian's gaze followed Luigi to the pipe before his feet did, still amazed that that pile of petite plumbing actually had such an ingenious purpose. Once they were at the pipe, he wasn't done being surprised as he witnessed firsthand Luigi effortlessly spring up onto the edge of the round green duct that was two-thirds his height without needing to really even bend his knees. He then stooped down to offer an aiding hand up, looking extremely casual about such a feat. _Holy crap, that's not something people can just do in real life._

Taking the hand in reverence, Adrian found himself hoisted up with relative ease and stared down the hole, an oh-so familiar weight settling in his gut. Neither of the times he'd fallen into one of these had resulted in a painless transference from one place to another. He looked to Luigi, who could see his fear and misguidance.

"Don't worry. All you have to do is-a fall in, but when you feel the gravity change, you turn-a yourself around so you stick the landing." He smiled and released Adrian's hand (to Adrian's slight dismay). "I'll go first. If you don't get it, I can catch you." With that, the green plumber shot down the chute and was gone.

Adrian was still confused- those instructions contradicted what Parakarry first told him, though doing as the parakoopa said had proved to be inaccurate. Maybe his directions were just incomplete. At any rate, he felt much safer this time around knowing that Luigi would be waiting just on the other side.

 _'Never thought those words would pass through my mind,'_ he laughed in his head. Not sure how much longer the pipe would stay above ground, he inhaled sharply and stepped off into the darkness. _'Turn when the gravity changes,'_ he repeated to himself, ' _to keep your feet under you...'_

 _Down..._

 _Down..._

 ** _Not down._**

Adrian forcefully swung his legs up to his chest, the momentum altering his pitch and yaw so he now felt like he was rising. As soon as he had done so, he popped headfirst out into open air, catching the briefest glimpse of a dark setting around him before his boots painlessly met the ground. He blinked.

"I… did it." He filled with celebratory glee, having for the first time come out of a warp upright and unharmed. A muted clapping sound emitted from his left and he whipped around to see Luigi patting his gloved palms together.

"Way to go! Now come on, we should move before it gets-a too dark." The taller plumber beckoned with a swoop of his hand as he fished a flashlight out of his pocket and clicked it on.

Adrian had to cut his feelings of accomplishment short for a double-take moment, finally looking this way and that to notice where they had emerged. Twisted, gnarled, barren trees were in every direction, the ground was dry, the grass dead, and despite it being a summer evening, it was numbingly cold and nearly at no more than twenty feet visibility due to how eerily dark this place inherently seemed to be. There was no mistaking that they were in Boo Woods.

"Hey, don't-a hang back too far, getting lost here is a bad idea! Trust me."

Luigi's voice automatically drew Adrian to his senses and the foreign lad was quick to keep in tow. It was strange how calm and collected the supposed 'fraidy-cat' brother was now, being in a haunted woodland wielding nothing but a flashlight and leading a stranger who was liable to be of hindrance to him in some way. Not even his hands were shaking, Adrian noted, amazed. Was this _really_ the Luigi who he spooked unintentionally when they met about a quarter hour ago?

"How are you not scared? These woods are terrifying. I keep feeling like something is watching me."

Fixated on the path before them, Luigi frowned. "Something is," he stated matter-of-factly, "but acting afraid is just what they want from us. Whatever you do, don't-a look behind you. Keep looking straight ahead."

Now Adrian was truly disturbed, shivering, and though his eyes were bugged out at this point, he didn't dare defy anything his escort had to say. Luigi had a mansion in this forest, so he was surely used to this protocol and probably came up with it himself.

 ** _Huaha ha ha…_**

A spine-chilling laugh echoed to the rear of the two travelers. Adrian stifled a whimper, latching a hand onto Luigi's arm. _That's a freaking Boo, don't look back._

Only a short ways into the sticks, it was already impossible to see anything outside the beam of their torchlight. Fog creeped along the roots and stems of the lifeless foliage, making for a greater tripping hazard if one wasn't careful. The call of crows and ravens droned on in the distance, just barely less unwelcome than the dense silence encompassing the area.

Adrian focused on his breathing as it misted translucent white in front of his eyes. ' _Keep looking straight… Nothing's in the corners of my eyes… Looking forward…'_

Something touched his hair and he flinched on instinct. _Luigi should have mentioned not looking up._

Two blood red spots in the darkness glowered down into Adrian's petrified soul and he cried out in a piercing octave, causing Luigi to swing around, shining his beam onto a dozen white orb-like apparitions floating about them. He paled instantly.

With not a moment to lose, Luigi gripped Adrian's pack strap and hauled him down the trail, as their lives literally depended on it. Adrian continuously yelped, struggling to keep pace and not get his boots caught on brambles while he was dragged behind the bouncing streak of luminance guiding them through the trees. Menacing laughter bellowed and shrieked in waves right on their heels.

"I- I'm sorry, Luigi! I…" Adrian tried to call an apology to his current rescuer, who cut him off.

"No time! Once-a we get to the bridge, stand your ground! They can't-a come onto the property uninvited, and-a letting them chase us is their invitation!"

A gap in the treeline approached and Adrian spied the cobbled gray bridge cast in an almost heavenly glow beyond.

The two broke out onto the riverbank, not ceasing to bolt until both pairs of feet pattered halfway across the stone construction, in the crosslight of four tall lamp posts at the ends of the carved hand railings. Luigi twirled, his boots skidding to a stop, using the beam of his flashlight to hold off the offending swarm of Boos trying to float over the river-crossing, the spirits cackling and hissing back at him, but keeping their distance now.

Adrian, who watched, panting and shaken, hastily fumbled his own flashlight out of his bag and ignited the beam to help push the ghosts away. He pointed it at the bulk of the beings, making them cringe and recede slowly, covering their beady black eyes. With the high of adrenaline and seeing his efforts were successful, the young man took a step toward the cluster and hissed loudly back at them, a tactic he used to use to make his cats flee when they started fighting with each other.

Incredibly, it seemed like the Boos had never been challenged in this way and they responded much like Adrian had hoped, flitting off into the bleak void of trees until no noise emanated from that direction.


	6. Chapter 6: Encountering E Gadd

**Chapter 6: Encountering E. Gadd**

The twilight was quiet, peaceful even. A full moon had risen after the sun departed the sky. The horizon was brushed with strokes of violets and navy blue, stars dotting the heavens above the dead forest and reflecting off of the rushing river that bordered the less wooded hill opposite. Upon the bridge over this stream, a party of two exhausted adventurers stood tense, torches at the ready in case the mob of Boos they had warded off decided to come after them again.

Not until no sign of daylight remained did they drop their guard enough to fall back on their haunches and breathe sighs of relief. Luigi looked to Adrian, hat askew, and patted the other on the shoulder.

"You okay?"

Adrian slowly focused his eyes and turned to peer at the other. "Uh… Yeah, I'm good. Are you?"

Luigi nodded, dropping his arm. After a moment, he let out a dry chuckle. " _Mama Mia…_ I've-a never seen anyone hiss at a Boo. Why did you do that?"

Flushing pink, Adrian scratched under his ear, glancing away. "Well, I mean, they were hissing at us, so I just tried doing it back..." _That was a dumb explanation, but he couldn't outright say that he understood anything about Boos, especially since he really didn't._

"Ho-ho! Well, it was kind of freaky. You _do_ have-a that effect on people." Luigi laughed, paraphrasing Adrian's earlier avowal, accenting it with a wink and a finger-gun.

Adrian forced himself into silence. Having heard Luigi say the word 'freaky' was funny because his accent naturally rolled the 'R' but it would probably be rude to laugh. Also the wink- it was a friendly sort of wink, he knew, but it still made him have a mini fan-attack inside. ' _Keep it together, Adrian, don't say anything stupid. You'll embarrass yourself.'_

Receiving a blank stare in return for his gesture, Luigi felt like it was time to move on. "Okie-dokie! To the, uh… Professor…" He hastily stood, straightened his cap, then gave Adrian a hand up, ushering him to take the lead toward the shady hill in the background.

Their journey continued, less stressful now that they were past the worst of it. Adrian occupied himself with gazing ahead, awaiting to see that familiar silhouette of a grand stone-walled gate isolating Luigi's previously haunted estate and the tiny ramshackle hut before it that marked the entrance of Gadd's old paranormal research lab. Along the way, though, he couldn't help but notice shapes among the more sparse portion of the woodland. He made a casual pass over with his flashlight and saw that these figures were tombstones.

' _Graves…'_ A light flickered in Adrian's head. ' _That's why this place is haunted, I know, but I never stopped to wonder… What dies and becomes a Boo? Was King Boo a real living king once or have all Boos always been ghosts?'_

Luigi kept a little behind, observing this stranger as he intently squinted at each grave marker they passed, clearly deep in thought and generally distracted. He still wasn't sure what to make of the individual with childlike curiosity claiming to be from his home world. In truth, Luigi saw pieces of himself in Adrian; the Luigi that first came to this place, completely in awe at the bright sunny atmosphere and cute, happy creatures of the Mushroom Kingdom…

But they were in the polar opposite environment here. The gritty, foreboding, accursed region through which they tread was nothing to marvel at with such aspiration. Sure, he'd just seen Adrian scared (and had himself managed to feign an air of coolness up until that point) but now this _kid_ looked ready to all but dive six feet into the ground with a magnifying glass, smiling. _He had HISSED at a BOO._ Luigi wished inwardly that he didn't have another Elvin Gadd on his hands here. The original Gadd was enough of a nuisance without Adrian's youth and energy and scary-huge dark eyes.

 _Speaking of the professor…_ Light from the tiny window of his hutch glowed through the boscage and tombs ahead. Adrian spotted it before Luigi pointed it out and he became giddy, rushing up the pathway, backpack and mohawk bouncing as he skipped along. _Yeah,_ Luigi figured, _this kid would probably get along with the old coot._

" _Oh._ " Adrian, previously running toward the small wood construct, stopped in his tracks. There, in the distance, under the glow of the full moon was the… _Mansion?_ It was definitely not.

"It's rank D… Just a nice house." Adrian muttered to himself, head tilted in contemplation. "I guess it's like at the beginning of Dark Moon, but then why is the lab still here? I'm confused…"

"Confused about what?"

Twirling in place, Adrian yipped and nearly fell over, not having expected a voice suddenly next to him. Luigi was still coming up the dirt road, and this tone was lighter, raspier than his. Adrian was surprised to see a tuft of white hair at his eye level, then glance down to see Professor Gadd himself standing an arm's length away, his wavy glasses peering back and his age-creased smile beaming with one tooth poking out over his bottom lip. _How did he just appear so silently?_

"Oh, goodness! Sorry to have startled you, young feller! Guess I just can't help myself sometimes. Ho ho!" Gadd did a sort of dance in place as he laughed. "Ah, Luigi, my boy! I see you brought a friend through the woods. How did that go?"

Adrian turned to see Luigi coming into range of the conversation, but the professor didn't look at him until after addressing him, seeming to just be aware of his presence. Perhaps he had seen Luigi coming before he snuck up; that's what Adrian chose to believe.

"Uh, yeah. It was… exciting." Luigi scratched his head, clicking his torch off. "Anyway, professor, we actually came-a to see you. Do you have time?"

"Why, yes, sonny! It's been a while since I had some company, other than ghosts, of course. Come in." The old man trod up to the shack and opened the door with a creak, gesturing the two in.

Adrian felt slightly more unnerved now, knowing that the hut couldn't be opened quietly. The professor had to have been outside already to approach without making a sound, _unless…_ Adrian shook his head, dispelling his conspiratorial thoughts and just following Luigi inside, avoiding eye contact with Gadd when thanking him.

The light inside cast down the cavernous vertical tunnel and a rickety ladder mounted within descending into darkness. One by one, the trio climbed down past the bowed wooden rafters, collecting at the bottom. The air was musty, a bit chilly, and smelled of earth, but not as bad as traipsing through a haunted orchard full of boos. Once the professor's cloth shoes touched down on the dusty lab floor, a hanging light fixture illuminated the space in all its cluttered glory. Clunky machinery lining the walls, piles of tomes and papers stacked around the support beams, a disorganized bookcase and equipment covered work table in the back corner between mismatched doors that led off to the rest of the small underground complex; it was a wonder how Gadd got anything done, if in fact he did. There were even random bags and objects up on the ceiling supports.

"Mind where you step! I've lost track of a tool or two in here the last few days. Maybe lost a few marbles, too. Ho-hoo!" Professor Gadd ambled over to a blank unobscured portion of the craggly wall and put a hand against it, opening a wide hidden panel that matched the rocky surroundings and out rolled a raggedy little sofa with a blanket and pillow on it. Gadd cleared the items and smiled at his guests. "There we are. Make yourselves at home."

Adrian and Luigi exchanged looks, shrugging simultaneously and heading to the couch. As they sat, Gadd had somehow very quickly procured a small folding table and set it before the couch, gracelessly plunking down between the pair. The professor then snapped his fingers and suddenly a metal claw dropped from the ceiling, deposited a tray with a full tea set on it onto the table, and disappeared back into the rafters. Adrian's mouth hung open in bafflement while he scanned the loft to see where the claw had emerged from. The lab certainly didn't seem as high-tech as it proved to be, which only made the professor look all the more eccentric and guilefully clever than Adrian was prepared to accept.

' _That's the coolest thing I've ever seen, but I'm scared now.'_

"So, what brings you whippersnappers all the way out here tonight?" Gadd slurped some tea while he reclined, his thick glasses making it impossible to tell if he was actually looking at either of them.

"Right! Well, first of all, professor, that's Adrian." Luigi sat forward and gestured to his escortee, to which Adrian nervously just nodded. "I brought him because-"

"He's from another dimension? I know."

Silence. The other two stared, bewildered and unbreathing, at the professor that continued to sip ever so casually.

Gadd sighed, smiling. He looked to Adrian directly and tipped his head. "Have some tea, my boy. I insist."


	7. Chapter 7: Dumbfounding Discovery

**Chapter 7: Dumbfounding Discovery**

Adrian's heartbeat was accelerated, the short hair on the back of his neck standing straight and his fan-brain spinning theories so quickly that no single thought stuck. He was brought to Gadd for help finding a way home, but every instinct he had told him not to trust the old geezer.

"Um… n-no thanks, I have water in my bag." Adrian scooched a couple inches over until his hip was smushed against the sofa's armrest, the farthest he could be from Gadd without getting up. His lost eyes turned to Luigi for aid, but the plumber blinked back in equal confusion and he shrugged.

Gadd chuckled, shaking his head, hair swishing. "Oh, I sense your convictions, sonny... Don't worry, it's decaf!" He quickly poured a small amount of tea into a cup on the tray and then held it out to Adrian, obviously having no intention of backing down.

Adrian wasn't sure if the professor was oblivious or pushy or overly hospitable, but to keep refusing would probably take more energy and time than he could afford to waste. _The coot may be eccentric, but it isn't like he would actually poison anyone, right?_

With a quiet huff, Adrian caved and took the teacup, muttering about how he didn't have much choice. He tried to ignore the intensely glaring ripple-lenses as he took, inspected, and then sampled the beverage. It tasted like weirdly sour, unsweetened green tea. As he gulped, an indescribable sensation surged throughout his whole body like lightning. It wasn't painful, more invigorating, but the shock was enough to make him drop the cup in panic and it clattered on the floor, spilling out.

Before a question could escape him, Adrian found the Professor bounding up, standing on the couch cushion beside himself and closely gazing him in the eyes with a mad smile. Luigi sat forward from where he was to try and see what was going on, almost falling off the seat and flailing to correct his balance.

"Exactly as I thought! Your world lacks magic, doesn't it? Ho ho, how interesting!" Gadd stepped off the furniture and did a jig all the way over to his bookshelf where he began searching through the thick volumes.

"W… what just happened…" Adrian started feeling his face to try and figure out what the professor had been so fascinated by. Luigi apparently wanted to find out as well and slid closer, between concerned and curious. When he locked eyes with the other, his expression changed to something Adrian couldn't pinpoint, but it surely wasn't the way he wanted to be looked at. "What? Did he do something to my face?"

Luigi slowly raised his hand, pointing at his own eye. "It's… Y-your…"

Chest clenching in rising unease, Adrian tore off his backpack and dug into it, taking out his survival kit and removing the small hand mirror to see his eyes. His pupils… _They were glowing_ ; they had to be, since there was no light shining anywhere in front of him. It was dull, but there was a distinct blue shimmer emitting from within his retinas. "What the _f-_ "

"Found it!" Gadd shouted, holding a huge book high above his head with both hands, his loudness startling his visitors to attention. Well thrown into a rush of adrenaline, Adrian rose with shoulders square and almost literal fire in his eyes.

"Wait just a minute!" Adrian aimed his pointer-finger at the old scientist, who smiled back innocently and tucked his book underarm. "What did you do to me? This-!" Pulling his glasses off dramatically to accentuate his worries about his glowing eyes, Adrian suddenly realized that his vision hadn't diminished. He blinked hard a few times to confirm that he wasn't imagining things. All his breath escaped his lungs and he dropped his accusatory arm, glancing all around and at a loss for words. _'I can… see.'_

Gadd's smile widened. "Hm, don't worry about that. All of your questions will be answered in due time, my boy. For now..." he hefted the old textbook over to the table, snapped to have the mysterious ceiling claw steal away the tea set, and plopped the tome down. "I'm sure you would like to hear how it's possible that you happened on this dimension, yes? Personally, I'm quite intrigued about how a non-magical realm managed to crossover with this one! Might require quite a bit of study."

Luigi slumped back on the couch, his eyes rolled skyward and he groaned woefully at the mere suggestion of some scientific lecture. On the other hand, Adrian stopped his looking around, anxious to finally get a concrete answer for _something._

"Fine… It j-just better not take long. This eye thing is freaking me out."

The trio gathered over the crinkled, ragged pages while Gadd flipped through them. "I would assume you are aware of the theories that many, many near-identical timelines and dimensions exist, and I can tell you that we here have confirmed that theory to be true. Ah, there it is…" Gadd laid out a two-page spread of diagrams, one showing a few different colored parallel lines and then a 3-D image illustrating each line being planar and stacked one over the next. Indecipherable script covered much of the empty space outside the pictures. "Dimensions, for all intents and purposes, are parallel and do not interact with one another; however, that is only from what _we_ can see. Each universe is infinite in expanse, and with the occurrence of certain events, they actually branch off in different directions."

Gadd pointed to a small illustration of one line dividing four times from a single point, each new line doing as Gadd continues to explain. "This is a simple example of a timeline branching. Some branches become their own infinite timelines, others cross back into the same timeline… but some cross into other dimensional planes instead."

In the background, Luigi yawned, moments of boring science gab away from falling asleep, though Adrian became fascinated despite his earlier displeasure.

"So, me being here _now_ is because I branched my timeline… making it intersect with a point in this dimension. Right?" Adrian poked his fingers together, representing the lines crossing.

Gadd chortled, making a so-so gesture with a hand. "We can't be sure it was _you_ who branched it, but you've got the idea, youngin'. What we don't know is _how_ it happened. So, tell me the events leading up to your cross over and don't spare a single detail- everything is important!"

By the time Adrian had once more told his tale of climbing the mountain, finding the mushroom and falling down, Luigi was slumped against the sofa's armrest, snoring softly. The poor plumber was awakened when Gadd later slapped the giant book shut, bouncing in place and clapping with sheer excitement.

"Remarkable! And you mentioned that you have recorded footage of your world? Good heavens, let me see! There's so much to learn!"

More being told rather than asked, Adrian surrendered his drone and cell phone to the scientist, who snatched them away to a gargantuan console across the room. Instead of instantly tearing into the devices for data like Adrian anticipated, Gadd oddly just set the equipment down and turned back with yet a stranger air about him.

"Now, I'm sure to be up all night recording my findings, but you lads have had a long day. Luigi, why don't you take Adrian up to your house and get situated? I'll give you both a report in the morning."

The request was not unreasonable, but the implication was clear: _Gadd did not want either of them to watch him work._ Luigi groggily got up and shuffled towards the ladder as Adrian looked on, disturbed. With no room to argue, he gathered his bag and glasses and started to follow but paused, foot on the bottom rung.

"Are… my eyes going to stay like this?" He got up the courage to inquire.

Gadd's melon-like head tilted, face cast in shadow. "Oh no, it's just temporary. Goodnight…"

Moping up the path at Luigi's heels as they reached the doorstep to the plumber's estate, Adrian was too fixated on his sense of dread to admire all the new experiences he should be basking in. He had been given more than a few red flags about Gadd that he wasn't sure how Luigi didn't see, but he couldn't say it outright. For now, Adrian decided, he would have to keep playing dumb and just hope for the best, regardless of his distrust toward Elvin.

"Welcome, welcome. Make-a yourself at home." Luigi politely held open the door to let Adrian into the front room, which seemed to bring him back to his usual disposition and he curiously honed in on every detail of the home's interior as he saw them. Indeed the first sights he met were a call-back on Dark Moon; green wallpaper patterned with white diamonds, intricate moldings on the doorframes, hardwood floors throughout. The archway on the left led to the living space, a short hall just ahead presumably leading to a kitchen, an ascending stairway to the forward right (with actual wrenches built into the banisters) and a sealed door just before it that could lead anywhere. Adrian first thought to ask for a tour, but it being so late now, he would hate to trouble Luigi further. The poor guy surely hadn't been expecting to host anyone tonight.

The plumber in question scratched the back of his head, glancing up at the hanging light fixture over them both. "Er, so I have a spare room. Upstairs. It's a bit… Well, you don't have claustrophobia, right?"

"Uh, no."

"Good, because I do." Luigi laughed nervously. "I didn't wanna have to sleep there if you could. But first, you hungry?"

An hour later, after snacking on milk and cookies, lots of awkward idle chatter, and Luigi graciously convincing Adrian to borrow one of his old nightgowns to sleep in, the duo went up to their respective sleeping places. Adrian's initial reaction to his room was ' _Luigi wasn't kidding about this room being claustrophobia inducing.'_ In essence, it was a closet with just enough room between the bed and the wall to squeeze a nightstand into. At least there was a window.

Shuffling under the cottony covers, Adrian stared worriedly up at the slanted ceiling. Though exhausted by the far and beyond unusual ordeals he had dealt with today, sleep would not come easy. He was sinking through his feelings one layer at a time like a flat stone falling in the depths of a lake. He felt homesick, awestruck, terrified, deceitful- most of all, he wondered if any of this was really real. It passed his conscious that maybe this was a sick dream. _What if he hadn't gotten up from his fall down that ridge?_ What if he had hit his head one too many times and he was comatose in the middle of the woods, thinking he had found some fantasy world? What if he was dying?

' _What if'_ crashed in waves over him. Eventually, he cried in silence until sleep overwhelmed him.


	8. Chapter 8: Something Strange

**Chapter 8: Something Strange**

 _Creeeeeak…_

Adrian had a keen internal clock that switched into 'light-sleeper' mode every morning just after sunrise, so he steadily grew aware of a nearby door squeaking open. All at once, the events of the previous day filled out his subconscious and ejected him into waking alarm, sat up in his borrowed bed to lock gazes with an equally surprised Luigi in pajamas standing in the doorway. A beat passed before either realized that they were holding their breath. Adrian soon took account of a folded pile of cloth in the Italian's arms- _his clothes._

"Ehm, I-I'm sorry, I didn't mean to wake you…" Luigi shrank back apologetically, to which Adrian quickly made himself relax, rubbing his eyes of excess salts.

"Mn, don't be, it's your house. But, uh… did you get those from my backpack?"

Flushing from the neck up, Luigi rushed to place the bundle on the nightstand and back away. "I just washed them! I d-do laundry in the mornings and, uh… well, I got up extra early today because I couldn't sleep well last night." He rubbed his arm as if ashamed.

"...Oh." Adrian didn't fully buy that. He knew for certain that Luigi could literally sleep on command, if _Mario & Luigi: Dream Team_ was any indication, but of course he couldn't say that. "...Well, thanks."

"Oh, wait!" Luigi suddenly lit up with excitement, exiting the room for merely a moment before returning with Adrian's old tan ankle boots in hand, only they didn't look so old. "I noticed you have-a some trouble getting to higher platforms, so I gave your boots a little boost! They should help you jump up to five times higher now."

Slack-jawed and speechless, Adrian sidled out from under the covers, taking the shoes with reverence. "Seriously? How does that work?"

Luigi shook with a laugh as he clasped his hands behind his back. "Trade secret... Now, I'll meet you down-a'stairs for breakfast. Hope you like scrambled eggs." He turned to leave, but paused. "Your eyes look normal again, by the way. Well, not normal- but I mean, they're not glowing anymore..." He spurted a dry laugh, then quickly closed the door after himself.

Adrian blinked, brows drawn together in puzzlement. _'Was that a joke? Did Luigi just try ribbing me? Aw, that must mean he's warming up to me- dangit, I should have laughed.'_

After dressing back in the orange shirt, jeans, and his newly 'super' boots, (all of which felt softer and looked cleaner than they had in a long while,) Adrian descended the stairs and made a beeline for the kitchen, only to stop halfway down the hall at sound of insistent tapping on the front door.

"Uhh, Luigi," Adrian called cautiously over his shoulder, "I think somebody's at the door."

Luigi's head poked around the corner, him now in his usual plumbing attire and cradling a mixing bowl. "Who is it?" He called timidly.

The knocks only got louder in response. Adrian decided to cautiously sidestep toward the front window to catch a glimpse of the visitor. As he reached it, into the frame hopped one excited looking Elvin Gadd. He waved, wagging some kind of plasticky box in his hand, then pointed at the door to ask for entry.

"It's the Professor. Do I open it?"

"Ugh. I guess so…" Luigi griped, trudging back into the kitchen. He wasn't a fan of Gadd's uncanny talent for disruption.

As Adrian pulled the door open and looked up, he hastily jumped backwards as a drone buzzed by his face and into the overhead space of the foyer. In after it skipped the old inventor fiddling with the controls.

 _'Wait a second…'_ Adrian gawped at the devices in thought. _'Those look like-'_

"Good morning, young'n!" Gadd song-sang, making tiny leaps from one foot to the other. "Hope you slept well!"

Pointing up at the small blue and black quadcopter, Adrian raised his brows. "You fixed my drone?"

Gadd smiled and nodded, handing Adrian the controller. " _Upgraded_ , my boy."

The machine he held looked almost nothing like his previous drone controller, save for the stout antenna on top and the red crest light indicating that the power was on. The buttons and joysticks were repositioned to make way for a large screen that took up the rest of the frontal surface. From the screen, Adrian could see the position of the drone's camera angle on him and Gadd in front of the door.

"Sick!" Adrian admired his new toy, forgetting why he ever held suspicion for the old man.

"Yes, but you haven't seen _all_ the new features yet, sonny." Gadd twirled his hand in a showman-ly fashion and gave the light on the controller a precise poke.

With a chime similar to a Gameboy Advance starting, the screen briefly flashed Gadd's own brand logo. The image pixelated and morphed into two blue digital zeros over a flat red line. The zeros blinked.

"I call it 'The S.C.I.D.R. unit.'" Gadd proudly gestured to the controller and the drone as a whole. "Self Controlling Intelligent Drone Reconnoiter, for long, though I suppose you could simply call it _Skyder_."

In the back of Adrian's mind, the word 'reconnoiter' pinged as odd, but the beginning of the acronym was what occupied his foremost curiosity. "Huh… It controls itself? Like, is it sentient, or..?"

"No, not exactly. This is a very prototypical build. I didn't get to program in much personality with all the time it took to make repairs and alterations, so I borrowed the AI algorithms from another invention of mine." Gadd frowned, head tilted and tapping his cheek thoughtfully.

' _Super Mario Sunshine. He made me a flying FLUDD.'_ Adrian laughed to himself at the realization. "So, it flies itself... Can it talk?"

The question brought Gadd back to the present and he lit up again, bouncing on his toes. "Oh, you better believe it! In fact, _Skyder_ , introduce yourself."

The drone overhead did a little twirl then came to hover between the two as the screen smiled. From both machines, the audio of a tinny monotone voice spoke. "Greetings. I am SCIDR, Self Controlling Intelligent Drone Reconnoiter, as the professor said. It is nice to meet you, Adrian, though you technically have known me for some time." In sync, an icon of a hand waved on the monitor and the drone body did a little figure 8.

Making a chuffing sound to compensate for his speechless amazement, Adrian waved back at the machines.

"Wonderful. Now that we've gotten the introductions out of the way, I'd like to present your phone back to you." Gadd held out the electronic, intact and unaltered. He suddenly grew mysteriously somber. "And this is the part where I tell you the more concerning news."

Adrian's face lowered. "What do you mean?" He took the phone and inspected it; it turned on just fine and the lockscreen wasn't reset.

"It's not about the condition of your phone, kiddo. Come sit down."

The few steps into the TV room felt heavy and too-quiet, even with the occasional noise from Luigi cooking or the copter whizzing alongside. Gadd stood in front of the window, the morning light casting him in silhouette. Adrian sat in the only armchair, setting Skyder's control head on the table to his left and clutching his cell anxiously.

"... I don't think you came here by accident, sonny. Somebody was tracking you. Somebody in _this_ dimension."

A cold, prickling sensation crept over Adrian's skin, affecting his breath. "Th-that isn't possible. How would anybody here know me, o-or how to target me?"

"Quite possibly the same way you know about us." Gadd tipped his head at an angle, making his glasses glare through his shadow.

Adrian's breathing halted altogether. He thought his heart might have stopped. _Of course Gadd wasn't stupid enough to not see right through him._

"No worries. I already knew, even without all the telling data your phone had to offer. Your secrets are yours to keep." The professor smiled warmly as a consoling gesture before continuing. "What worries me is _why._ We don't have any clues as to why they want you here, or even _who_ they are. When it comes down to it, you are fortunate that you knew to find the brothers and ask for their help; otherwise, who knows where you'd be?"

Gadd came forward and laid a comforting hand on Adrian's shoulder, shocking the air back into him. "Make sure to eat something. You know how food in these 'games' has stat benefits, hm? Hohohoho."


	9. Chapter 9: Adversary Advances

**Chapter 9: Adversary Advances**

Adrian took Gadd's cryptic recommendation and sat down to breakfast, but he could hardly enjoy a meal with all the new questions swimming in his head. _Who brought him here? Why? How long have they watched him, waiting for this moment?_

"...rian… Adrian?" Luigi waved a hand before the startled boy's face, drawing him out of his trance, deer-in-headlights wide eyes. "You okay? You haven't touch-a your eggs."

It was true: Adrian hadn't so much as stuck his fork in the homemade dish, only bitten the side of buttered toast on the far corner of the plate. He sighed sadly. "I'm sorry. It looks great, I'm just nauseous right now. Sorry."

The expression the plumber wore was empathetic. Luigi had been stranded and afraid plenty enough times to know exactly how Adrian was feeling, but wasn't sure of what to do.

The fact of the matter was that Mario had entrusted Luigi to evaluate whether the kid was a threat, then report back to the castle where Mario was preemptively on guard. In the meantime, getting the professor to find out how Adrian had gotten here and to then send him back home would have been ideal, but it hadn't worked out that way. According to Gadd, Adrian was actually a target and needed protecting, though from what and for how long was anybody's guess.

The air in the room was heavy and demanded silent contemplation. The two wouldn't even look up at one another to infer that they bore the same troubles. The tension held fast, up until an ear-shattering alarm began blaring from the living room.

Skyder, the drone carrying its own controller by the antenna with a stout claw, buzzed into the room and fully scared both Luigi and Adrian out of their seats. Its screen read, 'Intercepting Transmission.'

"Wh-wha-what's happening?" Luigi stammered at Adrian for an explanation; Gadd had said he fixed Adrian's _thingy_ , but had not at all explained what he'd done to it.

Adrian was just as perplexed, making a garbled noise of confusion through the continued siren. "I don't know! Uh, uh- Skyder, what's transmitting?"

Skyder silenced and its face replaced the message, saying, "I am actively blocking signals from an unknown source that is trying to access your cellular device. I must notify you in events where your pursuer may attempt to make contact or track your current position.

Again flabbergasted, Adrian pulled his phone from his jean pocket and hastily tore out the SIM card. He stored the chip in a separate pocket and sighed. "I should've done that earlier. Is there a way to tell where the signal came from, like, a general location?"

Skyder processed the request for a moment before responding. "Back tracing the signal is not feasible. My sensors only conclude that the signal was transmitted from within a five meter radius of my precise location, which is not possible with the low-grade technology in this room. This must be an error."

Luigi and Adrian turned to each other, inwardly suspicious. _Luigi could never possibly be the one who wanted Adrian here, and Adrian surely could not have sent something to himself when his phone had been off… So who else was in the room?_

"Skyder, you… You didn't send the signal yourself, _did_ you?" Adrian nervously pulled at the hem of his own shirt, less comfortable with each passing second.

"Negative… though I now have a hypothesis: the transmission may have originated within the coordinates of this house, though not necessarily at our elevation. We could be above or beneath the exact-"

Like a reflex, Adrian leapt at the hovering controller and slapped a hand over the screen's mouth, speaking in a hushed but urgent tone. "Quiet!"

The frantic foreigner, the muffled machine, and the puzzled plumber locked themselves in place, listening. Waiting. Barely breathing (for those who could). Just as the desire to unfreeze and sigh in relief began to settle in, the unmistakable creak of wooden boards rang from overhead.

"Th-they're in my _room?!_ " Luigi whispered harshly, his knees knocking and sending him into a fit of jitters.

"Shh!" Adrian reached over and hooked his free arm with Luigi's, trying his best to not panic. "Back door."

In the blink of an eye, the three had vacated the abode's rear exit. While staggering through the backyard with no happy medium between speed or stealth, the human duo stole glances at the upstairs window. Much to either one's horror, a shadowy figure loomed beyond the glass. Its shape conjured the image of a gargantuan king cobra, hood flaring in poise as it would before lunging forth in attack. Such a thought effectively rendered Adrian's ability to think completely defunct. He stuck in his tracks like mud had swallowed him up to the waist.

 _He swore it just smiled at him._

"What are you doing! We gotta-" Luigi started to yell, but he was cut off by a ferocious roar past the fence ahead of them. Terrified flocks of crows took to the skies as the rumble of earthquaking stomps trampled and fell aisles of trees in the shortening distance. There was an increasingly slim chance of escape with each passing second, Luigi surmised. He cast a panicked scan all around the yard and his eyes settled on his wooden tool shed in desperation.

Being dragged chokingly hard by the back of the collar was what it took to snap Adrian out of his trance and he started to fight it until he realized it was Luigi pulling him into cover. With the door shut and haphazardly bolt locked with a shovel from the inside, this was not a good position to be in.

"We need a plan!" Luigi stuttered out in shaky breaths. "We c-can't go back inside, b-but being outside means that horrible creature will-a stomp us to death! Or worse…"

For the first time in five minutes, Adrian's channel-flipping brain pitched a seemingly unrelated thought at him, but it turned out to be the beginning of an idea. _Reconnoiter._

"Where's Skyder?" Adrian asked as calmly as he could muster. It appeared Luigi hadn't thought to pull the drone into the shed with them.

From outside there was a resounding crack and crunch, a clear indication that the giant beast had broken into the yard, followed by a familiar chirping siren noise and a flat, "Panic mode has been activated."

Boldly (or stupidly; possibly both) Adrian spotted and proceeded to pop out a knot hole in the wood panel wall, peering outside. He couldn't make out very much, but he saw some big, black and white thing pouncing at the tiny drone performing evasive maneuvers across the small grassy plot. _A giant rabid cow?_ No, it had a chain for a tail. The rest of the idea he needed sprung to mind, but he wasn't terribly psyched about it.

"Luigi… do you have home insurance?"

Skyder continued to buzz around the fence line, doing radial g turns, barrel rolls and the like, only narrowly missing being cleaved in half by a massive jaw of razor sharp fangs every few moments. The blare of its alarm system, which was implemented as a deterrent, only seemed to further agitate the aggressive foe.

It was time for the failsafe. Skyder faked right, banked hard to the left and briskly climbed up into the air, in the hopes that this monstrosity couldn't jump very high. As it turned out, the beast didn't jump at all, so Skyder was in the clear for now, only receiving angry barks and growls from a safe altitude. From here, the drone could really analyse this _thing._

Its features most resembled the Poochy, a dog-like animal species native to the Yoshi islands, but it also had distinctly chomp-like qualities: the teeth, a portion of its face being occupied by that bulging black googly eye, the limbs made from chain, and its obvious lack of friendliness. Other characteristics to note were its eyes glowing yellow with rage, and a small pink bow at the back of its larger-than-life head.

A clatter and a yelp from the shed soon drew the canid monster's attention. Suddenly, it developed a new method of hunting, growing silent as it stalked near to the source of the noise, tongue lolling out in excitement. This new prey was a sitting duck, and one that couldn't fly away.


	10. Chapter 10: Canine Kerfuffle

**Chapter 10: Canine Kerfuffle**

The colossal canine crept toward the petite shed, body low to the ground and tail skittering along quietly as it dragged through the grass. It panted and snuffed and slobbered profusely, ready to sink its teeth into whomever lay inside. Just before it could rear up to ram down the shack, Skyder's alarm chirped again, throwing the chomp-pooch off balance and it turned to glare at the drone.

Skyder was just as surprised, as it hadn't gone back into panic mode; rather, it had auto-blocked a message sent to Adrian's phone, but this time it was Adrian who sent it. Knowing Skyder would intercept the message, Adrian used this as a way to relay some critical instructions to the machine.

As the dog made its second attempt to stand and crush the shed, Skyder zipped by and lobbed its own controller at the creature's head, shouting, "Here, you metal mutt! I'm your appetizer, come get me!"

That worked. The brainless beast took the bait and resumed their game of ring-around-the-backyard, fuming mad. Skyder's aim was perfectly accurate, so its controller landed right beside the shed door where Luigi could reach out and snag it without notice. With the controller now in the adventurers' hands, the three of them could carry out an escape plan.

Skyder- the drone body- rushed to the clothesline by the house's back door and yanked free a blanket that hung there. As the monstrous mutt approached, the blanket was cast over its face, causing blindness, and it barreled through the line. The rope snapped, the drone catching one end and deftly winding it around the monster's tail, keeping it mainly in one place while it thrashed to regain vision.

With the quilt occupying the doofy guard dog, Luigi and Adrian snuck out of the shed coated in hastily fashioned lawn-clipping disguises, only their eyes uncovered by the brush. Before making their run for the opposite side of the house, Adrian dragged their 'fall guy' out of the hut- a scarecrow what's head was cut open on top to fashion a mohawk out of straw. He carefully leaned the dummy against the structure and then got up to pace with Luigi, making their break for it as silently as one can whilst dressed as a portable lawn.

In true ironical cartoon fashion, (despite Adrian's literal warning of it back in the shed when he was spelling out this convoluted plot,) both he and Luigi simultaneously stepped on and cracked a brittle twig while only part way to their destination. _The same twig, actually; it was quite long._

The furious chomp halted, slowly raising its shrouded head to the direction of the snaps. The two petrified plant-clad escapees managed to dive into a pile together, camouflaging well as a suspicious pile of grass just in time for their tormentor to finally pin the sheet under a steel paw and pull the cover off, also whipping its tail free from being bound. Now it snarled menacingly, glaring over its surroundings until zeroing in on a standing figure set about ten feet apart from a mound of shivering grass. Without a second or even initial thought, the dog charged through the tool shed like a house of cards, catching the scarecrow in its mouth and shaking it to pieces, ignorantly facing the wrong way.

 _'I can't believe this is frigging working'_ Adrian thought to himself, gesturing that it was time to run. The next instant, he and Luigi were booking it across the rest of the yard, but by then the canine wisened up to the decoy and was after them.

Daring to peek from his eye's corner, Luigi saw that the angry gnashing maw was only gaining on them. "This is _bad!_ "

Adrian didn't have time to think anymore, he was spent in every faculty and he hadn't eaten breakfast and _damn, if it isn't hard to focus when wearing an itchy suit made of grass._ He responded the only way he could; on his brain's game terminology filled autopilot. "BACKFLIP HIP DROP GRAB!"

"What-?" Luigi started to question the spewing of nonsense, but suddenly a compulsion overtook him, like he blacked out and was somehow still running.

In the blink of an eye, Luigi dug his heels into the gravel, crouched, sprung heel-over-head directly above the crushing jaws of death, then came down hard on the beast's tail, pinning it instantly. Before the mutant pooch even got the chance to wheel around and get at him, Luigi had gripped the chain tight, forcing the mutt to set still, confused and helpless.

Adrian halted, out of breath and now perplexed beyond belief. _That was not in the plan._ He tore off hunks of lawn suit, coasting around the subdued but very much still aggressive monster Luigi had captured, inspecting the situation.

"Luigi… Uh, you…" There was nothing Adrian could think to say in his astonishment. At any rate, it didn't seem that Luigi was really even hearing him, just staring ahead like a statue. _'What has gotten into him?'_

 _ **BARK BARK!**_ The chain-pooch waggled, too eager to lunge at the human not in its blindspot, making Adrian leap backwards- only he had not grown accustomed to his new jumping boots and ended up flinging himself against the side of the house. After nearly cracking his skull on impact and landing on his butt with an 'oof', he blearily looked back up. It was at this unfortunate time that Luigi seemed to also be coming to.

Luigi blinked the haze out of his vision, finding himself holding a bulky chain. _Where had that come from?_

"Luigi!"

Luigi heard Adrian gasp from afar and glanced around, his confusion fading each moment. Once he realized there was a rabid monster at the other end of the links, he shrieked, close to dropping the very thing that was keeping him from being a dog's dinner. In panic, he tripped over his feet and started falling backwards, but corrected himself by yanking the beast's tail, unwittingly pulling the chain taut like a rubber band.

An image montage flashed before Adrian's eyes. _'Pulling the chain slings a chomp in a certain direction… to crash into stuff. Sorry, Luigi.'_ Shakily, Adrian stood up and shouted, "Luigi! Drag it to face the stone wall!"

Though he could barely hear what Adrian was saying over the dog growling and his own heartbeat, Luigi didn't like the sound of that. "D-drag what? The monster?!"

"Just trust me!" The pang of a headache accompanied Adrian's yells and he staggered a bit before running towards the very wall he spoke of. His idea was to be near the crash site in case the mutt needed to be slung more than once; he only hoped he wouldn't pass out before he got there.

With no better ideas, Luigi tugged the chain as hard as he could and circled around the enemy it belonged to, turning the now anxious dog toward the cobble fence.

Now at the wall, Adrian had a quick test jump, learning that a short hop was little more than just bouncing on his tiptoes. Seeing the ball-bodied beast aimed in his direction, he called, "Pull straight back really hard, then let go!"

Already trembling from the fear and effort of controlling the chomp, Luigi complained into the open air, "Thiiiss **stiiiinks**!" With strained grunts, he slung the chain on his shoulder and towed it a few labored steps, the links seeming to stretch and whine with the building tension within. Able to go no further, Luigi sighed and released the chain.

The mutt let out a terrified yip as it was slingshotted past the house. Adrian just barely sprang sideways out of its path, whooping as he could practically see his reflection in that white shimmering surface before it barreled through the solid rock and mortar. A cloud of dust kicked up around the new gap in the gate and Adrian was forced to back away, coughing while the cobble continued to crumble for a moment, shards rolling in the grass.

Moments later, there was no indication of movement. Luigi caught pace and warily slipped to the other end of the fallen wall. "Is it… defeated?"

Waving away the clearing smoke, Adrian approached the mass of immobile rubble, finding not a monster laying in the dirt, but a tiny version of the former terror sprawled unconscious beside a giant black belt with sparking wires poking out of it. _No, not a belt._

"A collar…" Adrian stared sadly upon the helpless animal at his feet. "It… or _she_ …" He kneeled and reached out to rub the filthy pink bow on the back of the dog's head, "... was being controlled."

Before either of the onlookers said anything more, Skyder's drone body appeared, descending from overhead and addressing Adrian. "I have searched for the intruder. There have been no indications of their presence on these grounds since we vacated the house. There is nothing to trace."


End file.
